Skopje, 31 August 2023 (MIA) – If we adopt the decisions in Parliament, North Macedonia will be the first Western Balkan country to join the European Union in 2030, said Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski in an interview Thursday evening for Kanal 5 TV.

The Prime Minister said that the statement of the President of the Council of the European Union, Charles Michel, at the Bled Strategic Forum, as well as today’s statement of the Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, demonstrate that Europe is entering a process of reforms due to enlargement and the need for the Union itself to prepare for new members.

“The messages are clear for the first time after so many years. The EU is ready for enlargement by 2030. This aligns with our goal and what the Government is working towards. If we adopt the necessary decisions in Parliament, in 2030 we will be the first Western Balkan country to join the EU,” said PM Kovachevski.

Commenting on the statement of French President Emmanuel Macron over a “multi-speed Europe”, the PM recalled that this term was first used by French President François Mitterrand at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1994, when he pointed out that there are countries who would not want to give up on their domestic currencies and introduce the euro. “And this is what happened,” said Kovachevski, “some member states joined fully, some became a part of Schengen, while some also introduced the euro. The same refers to the Western Balkan countries as well,” said the PM, pointing to North Macedonia and Croatia as examples.

“A better example of ‘multi-speed’ does not exist. Now if we don’t adopt the necessary decisions, it will mean that Montenegro, Serbia and Albania will advance ahead of us, while we remain in the company of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. Do we want to remain in that company?” said Kovachevski, adding that North Macedonia is currently ahead of all other countries of the region.

According to Kovachevski, North Macedonia was in the EU’s waiting room and isolated for 11 years due to VMRO-DPMNE’s policies.

“We spent 17 years in the EU’s waiting room, thanks to the policies of DPMNE’s Government, and 11 years in isolation. We began our European path together with Croatia. Today Croatia is an EU member state, a part of the Schengen Zone and a state which has adopted the euro. While we began negotiations only last year. The failure to make decisions today will mean precisely that, a halt to the progress of our society,” said Kovachevski.

Kovachevski assessed the visit of the US Department of State’s Deputy Assistant Secretary, Gabriel Escobar, as one more firm message that the United States, as a strategic partner of the country, supports the constitutional amendments with the goal of North Macedonia’s EU membership.

“What remained as a key conclusion of that meeting is that the United States, together with the EU, are firmly of the position that North Macedonia being a part of the EU is in their strategic interest, as well as in ours. Secondly, that the US sees partners in the political parties who are working towards the country’s integration within NATO and the EU, and who fight against crime and corruption,” said the PM, adding that Escobar didn’t come to the country to pressure anyone into anything but “only to state that our first and most important political partner, the US, shares the same interests as us – for North Macedonia to be a part of the EU, and to encourage us to adopt the necessary decisions.“

Commenting on the opposition’s demands for elections, Kovachevski said VMRO-DPMNE only repeats a single word “elections” and does nothing else.

“VMRO-DPMNE reminds me of a parrot that repeats a single word: elections. If you ask them the time, they’ll say elections. If you ask them if they have a plan, they’ll say elections. They had local elections, two years have passed after the local elections, and they haven’t had a single project. At one time they kept going on about Bulgarization, assimilation, and now these arguments no longer exists because they were invalidated a whole year after the adoption of the negotiating framework, and now we are leading the negotiations as Macedonians with a clear Macedonian language. The latest thing they came up with is Bulgarian dictate. It’s not true that this is a Bulgarian dictate, the constitutional amendments were drafted by Macedonian experts at the Macedonian Ministry of Justice,” said Kovachevski.

According to the PM, VMRO-DPMNE “should find the courage, for the first time in its history, to support a strategic process for the country.”

“The decision to resume the European path is not a decision in support of the Government, but in support of the Euro-integrations, of what the citizens want – a better living standard, rule of law, improved democracy, greater social justice,” said Kovachevski.